Pole Dance (44 page)

"Right here, pretty girl." Shit! Even his voice sounded shaky. 'Get a fuckin' grip, would ya?'

"Turn on the iPod, 'kay?"

Glad to have something,
any
thing to do, Jake reached behind him and turned on the music as his girl asked. Soon he heard the opening bars of Moby's Porcelain and watched as his gorgeous girl danced her way into the bedroom in her robe that was soon dropped as she twirled.

Caitlin captured his eyes and held them as she danced, now only dressed in her ecru and lace bra and panty set--the same ones she wore the day they met--as she reached behind her to unclasp her bra. She threw her hair back as she slid the straps down her arms and let it fall from her hands before she moved to the end of the bed and raised her knee. Stopping suddenly, he watched as her eyes caught on the new picture hanging over their bed.

"Wha…" she dragged her eyes back to his and swallowed thickly. "Oh, my God."

Jake sat up and turned his eyes to look at the picture, too.

It was a large blow up of Caitlin that he had snapped during her 'audition' as a pole dancer. She was in profile, leaning away from the pole, her head tipped back and her hands and legs wrapped around the gleaming brass.

"Oh. My. God." she said a bit louder staring at her image. "When did you? How did you…"

"Come here, Darlin'," Jake said as soft as his rumbley voice could get, and sat up straighter as she made her way to him, her eyes never leaving the picture. "Took it with my cell when you were, ah, too busy pretending that pole was me."

Caitlin dragged her eyes back to his exclaiming, "I did
not
!"

"Babe. You totally fuckin' did. Your panties were fuckin' soaked just thinkin' of moving on me like you were moving on that pole." He was smiling as he tugged her down so she was captured, caught in the space of his body. He leaned in, touching his forehead to hers before moving his mouth to her ear. "And I was so hard, I thought it was gonna break off."

Caitlin leaned back and turned so she could kiss him. "Okay, maybe I was. A little," she admitted with a giggle.

Jake slid his hand underneath the pillow and snagged the black box. "You caught a piece of my heart, pretty girl, right there--right at that moment." He glanced back up at the picture and Cait had to strain to hear his next words.

"And every time I was with you after that, you'd catch a little more and a little more until you had it all, pretty girl." He moved her closer and brought her forehead to his again. "Know it's soon, maybe too soon. But it's important to me, yeah?"

She pulled back and looked into his eyes, her head tilted. "What's too soon, Jake?"

He held the black box out to her, his hand no longer shaking, firm in the knowledge that what happened next was how it was supposed to be, meant to be.

He watched his girl as she opened the box. Saw the shocked look on her face before she threw herself at him, tumbling them both back on the bed until her mouth was glued to his. Jake pushed her back a bit, so he could see her face.

"So, I'm getting' you like it?" He asked moving her hair off her face.

"It's exactly what I wanted," she replied moving her lips back to his. He pushed her back before they connected.

"Aren't you gonna unwrap it?"

"Unwrap it? Uhm. Okay."

He watched as she fumbled around in the bedcovers to snag the box and pull out the piece of candy that he had nestled in there. She glanced at him as she began to unwrap it then stopped, in fact her whole body seemed to stop as she saw what was inside the candy wrapper.

"Steady, pretty girl," Jake said doing an ab curl up to whisper in her ear. "It's just a ring."

He caught her glittering eyes.

"So, will you?" he asked moving to slip the chocolate diamond, pillow cut, solitaire on her finger.

"M-marry you?" Her voice was thick and her words slow.

Jake nodded gazing at the ring,
his
ring, firmly seated on her finger.

"I'd love to, Baby," she replied moving her eyes from the ring back up to his face. She leaned forward and kissed him softly. He watched her for a moment longer as she stilled, holding her hand out to admire her ring.

He sighed softly and shook his head. "Okay, Darlin'. Go for it."

Caitlin didn't have to be asked twice. She threw herself off the bed disregarding her lack of clothes and lifted her hands in the air yelling, "Score!", fingers thrust in 'metal horns' as she twirled, pranced and jiggled her happy dance of joy.

*.*.*.*.*

I hope you enjoyed reading Pole Dance as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please take a quick moment to rate and give feedback as I'm always looking to improve my writing.

About The Author

J.A. Hornbuckle currently living in Arizona, but who is, as ever, getting the urge to move on. She's lived or traveled through forty-three of the fifty states here in the U.S. and has even lived in Wales and England.

J.A. is an avid reader and calls her Kindle, "Boyfriend". She loves live music, red wine, Arizona in the winter and anything written by Kristen Ashley, Jessica Sorenson or Colleen Hoover.

She's been writing since she was young but has just now discovered that she has stories that other people enjoy.

She's currently working on Book 2 of the Dance series, TAP DANCE, which will continue the story of Marianne, Ram and Paul and their tangled but oh-so-fun to watch triangle.

Also in progress is the HUMAN HIEROGLYPHIX trilogy which will have a book on each of the co-owners of the tattoo parlor located next to Fuego's. The first book of HH is called 'Metamorphic' and revolves around Dex Nelson and Leila McCarthy, an English Professor at the University who, after hearing some disparaging remarks about her looks, decides to transform herself…and her first step in this transformation is getting a tattoo from the gorgeous Dex.

Feel free to communicate with J.A. at
[email protected]

Or connect with her through her blog : www.jahornbuckle.com

Excerpt from Metamorphic, Book One of the Human Hieroglyphix Series:

I was early for my appointment at Human Hieroglyphix. I sat in my car and ran my eyes over each and every letter in the neon sign. I didn't want to forget this moment, ever. This was a big step for me; a huge, earth-shaking step for me.

I had dressed with care, wearing my new black yoga pants and a white button down shirt with a jean jacket I had found stuffed in the back of my coat closet. I had trouble with my shoes, though, and had ended up simply wearing a old battered pair of Keds. On a whim, I had taken my long, long hair and put it high up on my crown and braided the length of it, making a thick braid that cascaded over my shoulder and laid over the top of my breast. I was going for casually chic, if I understood the term correctly from my magazine studies.

Taking a big, deep breath I steeled myself before grabbing my bag and heading towards the front door.

It may have been an award winner for years but it was in a questionable part of town. There was Fuego's, one of the town's topless bars, on one side and I saw that Bewitchments, the town's only sex shop, located on the other side of the strip club.

Nice, I thought beeping my locks.

I could hear the music before I was even close to the door. I stopped to look before I went in to, what appeared to be, an upscale shop. Clean with gorgeous pictures of tattoos in huge frames lining the walls. There was a girl behind the counter, her hair a strange short cut that was white blonde with bright, hot pink tips dancing to some kind of pulsating, almost erotic music that was pouring loudly from hidden speakers.

I opened the door and saw her turn towards me with a small guilty smile as she reached down and the volume of the music lowered.

"Gotta just love Fiddy, right?" She said with a crack of her gum.

I had absolutely no idea what she meant with that question but I recognized the voice, and the popping of the gum.

"Crystal, right?" I asked.

She tilted her head as her eyes raked me up and down.

"I'm Leila. Dex's four o'clock?" I prompted.

"Oh, yeah. Right." She said dropping her eyes as she fiddled with some paperwork on the desktop sunk below my eyesight.

"You need to fill out these three pages in full and sign here, here and here," she explained without raising her eyes. "If I could just get your ID, I'll get a copy made."

I dug my wallet out of my bag wondering what I'd done or said that caused her to close down between the 'Fiddy' and me saying her name.

"Uhm, Crystal? What's a 'Fiddy'?" I asked and watched her drag her eyes, her heavily mascaraed eyes to mine. They were a beautiful navy blue and gorgeous in spite of the ridiculously clumped, eyelashes.

"You're shittin' me," she whispered.

"Uh, no, I'm really not."

"Fiddy is Fifty Cent." She enunciated very carefully. At my blank look she continued. "You know, that rapper guy? Real name is Curtis somethin'-or-other."

I shook my head and watched her tilt her head again in confusion.

"You never heard of Fiddy?" she asked quietly but incredulously.

"Sorry, no," I replied equally as quiet handing her my ID and picking up the clipboard.

"What about Pink?" she asked watching me fill in the questionnaire.

"Who?" I asked raising my eyes back up to hers realizing that I had asked 'who' instead of 'what' like my mind was telling me to ask. I watched as she did a slow blink.

"Pink! You know," and I watched as this glorious girl, this wisp of a woman began singing strong, in one of the most beautiful voices I'd ever heard, singing one of the most heart breaking songs I'd ever heard.

I was stunned.

I was overwhelmed.

I was, in short, awed.

"What
was
that?" I asked quietly, still overcome, blinking the tears back.

I saw her take in the full of my face.

"Pink's, Who Knew."

"Wow," I whispered, recognizing that that was my operative word for that day.

"Mean it?" she asked, and with that question I caught a glimpse of Crystal's scars. Scars as deep as my own.

The lump in my throat grew bigger at the view and I could only nod.

"Where've you been, Leila? The moon?" she laughed.

"Practically," I said laughing with her and trying really hard not to sniff.

She reached under the counter and handed me a tissue. As she bent I noticed that what I had originally thought was a long sleeved top, made of beautiful flowers with black leaves and stems, were actually her tattoos. Full tattoos from her shoulders to her wrists on both arms.

Amazing.

"Looks like Dex is running late," she said apropos of nothing.

"How about you turn up Mr. Fiddy and teach me some of your moves?" I asked wiping my eyes and nose.

And we were stretching and stepping, rolling and dipping, giggling as we moved to the primal beats of what Crystal said was 'Candy Shop' when all of a sudden she stopped and ran behind the counter to turn the music down. I stopped, too, unsure what was going on.

"Ah, hey, Dex," she said straightening her cute tank top that was emblazoned with some sort of wording that had long since flaked off. "How's it going?" she continued, pulling up her low riding camouflage pants.

I turned, pushing up my glasses, to see who she was talking to and almost fell on my ass.

It was
him
.

It. Was. Him.